Sunday 21 September 2014

We can see!

For the first time for a week, the sky is clear and there is a slight breeze.   All the heavy mist and early morning fog has gone and the air is breathable.

I am doing the washing a day early because it is a fine day, because the farmer and I are going to a funeral tomorrow and because we have dear friends coming to stay in the middle of the week.   So I snatch at a good, breezy day.

The painters have almost finished painting the outside of our farmhouse - only the downspouts left to do and they will be done tomorrow, weather permitting.   So this morning I suspect the farmer will clear up all his prunings from the front garden.   He has drastically pruned back a lot of bushes as the garden resembled a jungle.   I'm sure it will be better for it come the Spring.

The over-riding sound in the garden is the song of our British robin - clear and strident, he seems to be singing from every bush and tree.   It pleases me because, if you remember, the farmer disturbed a robin sitting on a nest in a watering can in the vegetable garden and she never returned to the nest.   Later in the year I saw a robin venturing deep into a wygelia bush with a mouthful of worms - I do hope it was the same one and that she had nested again.   And now I hope it is her offspring I am hearing.   I have seen plenty of baby robins around - just like their parents but without the red breast until they reach maturity.

The other babies around are the pheasants.   The ones bred for the shooting season have been let out to wander, scratch around and grow fat (they are fed daily at feeding stations) and the Lane is thick with them, half grown and wandering about.   Driving through them is like going through an obstacle course, although I do sometimes wonder whether it is better to be killed on the Lane or to be injured in a wretched shoot and left to die a painful death (you can tell from this that I am not in favour of shoots - and I could never eat a pheasant.)

Speaking of such things, I read in the paper that London restaurants are going to be serving roasted grey squirrel shortly.   No thanks.   As my friend W remarked yesterday - they are just like rats but with a bushy tail.   And would you eat rat?

And speaking of squirrels - many years ago friend M bought me a box bush in a tub cut in the shape of a cockerel.   For years I have trimmed it with scissors and kept it in shape - or so I thought.  Sitting chatting to friend W yesterday I asked her if she though my cockerel was well shaped, she pointed out that it had two 'ears' and that she thought it was meant to be a squirrel - so squirrel it remains.

10 comments:

Cro Magnon said...

I HAVE eaten squirrel, and it was quite nice.

Joanne Noragon said...

Grey squirrel in the restaurant is startling. Do they have hunters out in the field, or are the poor things "farm bred." And why not red squirrel or black squirrel? Black squirrels are mean little devils that clear out the red and grey. The thought of them on a dinner plate wouldn't faze me a bit.

Rachel Phillips said...

People shoot grey squirrels around here (considered vermin and legal to shoot them) and eat them. I had squirrel cooked in red wine recently. I told P he was eating rabbit.

Mac n' Janet said...

My Mother says her family ate squirrel when she was a child because they were poor and they could shoot squirrels. She said they tasted a bit like chicken. As an adult she wouldn't have touched them.

Heather said...

I would love to see your cock-squirrel! Which of you 'should have gone to SpecSavers?'
We are having a perfect day today and I am delighted to have managed a couple of hours gardening without feeling too exhausted. There is still plenty to do out there, but all in good time. My little robin friend came to sing to me as I uncovered tasty morsels for his tea.
I don't fancy eating squirrel but my son has tried it and apparently it's OK.
Our garden seems to have been full of blackbirds of all ages for months. We see them in all shapes and sizes, and they are so tame.

donna baker said...

They must have an over abundance of them else I can not imagine why they are serving it in a restaurant. What is next? Feral cats?

jinxxxygirl said...

I never have nor do i intend to eat squirrel ..unless ofcourse the world comes to an end and that is all i have left to eat...lol....... My brothers took me squirrel hunting one year...fishing , hunting... the life growing up with brothers ... lol.. They shot one out of the tree and apparently they hit it in the back and paralyzed its hind legs so there it was dragging itself along by its front legs still trying to get away...broke my heart... I've not been hunting since..

I keep waiting to see the geese flying overhead headed south..nothing yet.....Hugs! deb

Robin Mac said...

I can't imagine eating squirrel, but they are such a novelty for me, only seeing them in England and the USA. No doubt if they were pests here I would feel differently. I have eaten crocodile, but found it very bland and uninteresting.
I am glad you are having a lovely day, we have had gorgeous weather for weeks, but today (the beginning of the school holidays), is wet and miserable. Cheers

The Weaver of Grass said...

Heather's commentmade me laugh and Jinx's made me so sad. Cro says it tastes quite nice. So seems we shall all have to make up our own minds if and when it appears on the menu. I am not even eating venison yet - so don't hold tour breath.

Terry and Linda said...

My grandfather used to fix squirrel.
My memory is it was good.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com